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One may gather that I am the type to see a communist behind every desk in our modern classroom,judging by my anti-Obama class speech plans. Not really. I see idiots behind every desk. If our teachers built clocks, nobody would ever know what time it is. The White House changed the stupidest part of his expected message but so what? As far as I'm concerned, parents should remove their children from the public school system permanently;not just one day. Why encourage kids to stay in school when they come out hopelessly ignorant? In a recent test by NYU, 22% of high school students answered that the Vietnam War was between North and South Korea. That's right, the Vietnam War had nothing to do with Vietnam. Amazing.

rosco 357

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marc ur talking about how kids dont know things, that they should, brought back a childhood memory of the 4 grade, our teacher asked one boy ronnie dickerson what state we live in. he could not answer. she then told him if he did not get better she would keep him in the 4th grade till he needed to shave, lmaol

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rosco 357 wrote:marc ur talking about how kids dont know things, that they should, brought back a childhood memory of the 4 grade, our teacher asked one boy ronnie dickerson what state we live in. he could not answer. she then told him if he did not get better she would keep him in the 4th grade till he needed to shave, lmaol

I was fortunate in having parents who treated me like a little adult and encouraged me to read and think. I get yer point but the numbers don't lie. When I was a kid, the USA scored (usually) in the top 5 in scholastic achievement worldwide. Not now. Are you totally discounting the facts? At least,in our day, the teach COULD keep kids back. That is no longer acceptible to the NEA. And that is why,in my opinion,the present generation is clueless and can't make change for a dollar without a damn calculator or computer. That opinion is based on direct,person to person,experience as a tutor for the Colleton County Literacy Council. My opinion is shared by June Dykes, Program Admin.

me > Academics & Activities > Academic skillsGlobal grade: How do U.S. students compare?How do U.S. students compare to students in other countries? It's not as bad as some say, but there is room for improvement.By Marian Wilde, GreatSchools Staff

The United States may be a superpower but in education we lag behind. In a recent comparison of academic performance in 57 countries, students in Finland came out on top overall. Finnish 15-year-olds did the best in science and came in second in math. Other top-performing countries were: Hong Kong, Canada, Taiwan, Estonia, Japan and Korea.How did the U.S. do?

Students in the United States performed near the middle of the pack. On average 16 other industrialized countries scored above the United States in science, and 23 scored above us in math. The reading scores for the United States had to be tossed due to a printing error.The major international tests

PISA The Programme for International Student Assessment is given every three years to 15-year-olds worldwide. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group funded by 30 countries, coordinates the test. The first PISA test was in 2000 and every test specializes in one particular subject, but also includes other subject areas. In 2006 the subject receiving special focus was science. In 2009 reading will be the special focus.

TIMSS The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study is an assessment given to fourth- and eighth-grade students around the world. The first TIMSS was in 1995, and the test is administered every four years. In 2007 approximately 60 countries participated.

PIRLS The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study assesses reading achievement in fourth-graders from 50 different countries. PIRLS is conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the same organization that gives TIMSS. The PIRLS given in 2001 was the first in a projected cycle of testing that will occur every five years.

According to Professor Erling E. Boe, of the University of Pennsylvania, "These rankings are reasonably consistent across surveys within grade levels for the same subject, though the rankings at grade 4 are sometimes quite different than those at grade 9 for the same subject. Also, the relative rankings by subject vary, such as between reading at grade 9 and civics at grade 9. Furthermore, the sample of nations participating in surveys varies greatly by survey and grade level."

Experts noted that the United States' scores remained about the same in math between 2003 and 2006, the two most recent years the test — the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) — was given. Meanwhile, many other nations, Estonia and Poland being two, improved their scores and moved past the U.S.

Researchers also made note of the fact that while the United States has one of the biggest gaps between high- and low-performing students in an industrialized nation, Finland has one of the smallest. Students in Finland perform remarkably well, regardless of the school they attend.What makes Finland so hot?

Finland's stellar performance has drawn the attention of education and government officials around the world. These experts have uncovered many attributes of the Finnish educational system that are distinctive and contribute to the success of Finnish students. Some of these features are:

* The Finnish school system uses the same curriculum for all students (which may be one reason why Finnish scores varied so little from school to school). * Students have light homework loads. * Finnish schools do not have classes for gifted students. * Finland uses very little standardized testing. * Children do not start school until age 7. * Finland has a comprehensive preschool program that emphasizes "self-reflection" and socializing, not academics. * Grades are not given until high school, and even then, class rankings are not compiled. * Teachers must have master's degrees. * Becoming a teacher in Finland is highly competitive. Just 10% of Finnish college graduates are accepted into the teacher training program; as a result, teaching is a high-status profession. (Teacher salaries are similar to teacher salaries in the U.S., however.) * Students are separated into academic and vocational tracks during the last three years of high school. About 50% go into each track. * Diagnostic testing of students is used early and frequently. If a student is in need of extra help, intensive intervention is provided. * Groups of teachers visit each others' classes to observe their colleagues at work. Teachers also get one afternoon per week for professional development. * School funding is higher for the middle school years, the years when children are most in danger of dropping out. * College is free in Finland.

Says Professor Jouni Välijärvi of the Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyväskylä, and Project Manager of PISA for Finland, "In light of the PISA data, Finnish schools manage to activate learning among the whole age cohort more effectively than any other country. Students are not sorted into different groups or schools but different types of learners are learning together. In this kind of setting high achieving students seem to serve as positive models for their less advanced classmates. The pedagogy differs from that applied in systems characterized by tracking and streaming. Efforts are made to provide instruction to cater to the needs of different learners in terms of their skills and interests."

Preschool education — a relatively new addition to the Finnish toolkit — has been part of their educational system for the past 10 years. According to Välijärvi, "Preschools are nonacademic in the sense that no clear academic targets are set. Socialization into school culture and learning to work together with children is the central role. Preschool is not compulsory in Finland, but 96-97% of the children go to it."

gypsy

I WANT MY KIDS, AND THE OTHER KIDS IN THE USA, to have the very best possible education. Why do I want this? What are the advantages of having a well educated citizenry? When everyone is well educated, businesses will be far more productive. American industry can compete very well with other countries only if it educates its workers to the same or higher degree as the competitive nations educate their workers. Also, a democratic government will be a far better operating machine if it has well informed voters who control it. People who are better educated tend to make more money, and also tend to be far less likely to participate in violent crime. I find all of these positive things stemming from high quality education quite laudable.

Since I want my kids and your kids to have the best quality education possible, I find anything which stands in the way of the best possible education for our kids, to be an obstacle at which the finger of treason could be correctly pointed. Anything that causes our standards to be lowered in our schools is a loathsome thing to be rid of as quickly as possible! Anything that is occurring at our schools which causes the students to be distracted away from their normal studies, and thereby causing valuable knowledge to be missed, should be removed from the school immediately.

With this as my starting point I would like to discuss the selling out of our schools, and therefore our country! The United States school system in the 1950’s took a back seat to nobody. It was the best school system on the planet and if you graduated from an American school you knew you had a good education. That is the standard by which I judge our school system today and the comparison shows today's schools to be revoltingly bad!

In the area of standards, the teachers are no longer permitted to fail students as they were in the 1950’s. If a student does not learn an adequate (a term that represents a good deal less today, than it did in the 1950’s) amount of material, he will often still be passed on to the the next level just as if he had learned it. Where is the motivation to apply yourself to the field of learning if you have no negative consequences when you do not learn?

What is at the root of this problem? From whence came this horrible decline in our school system? What lowered the standards? In a word, egalitarianism. Here is how. The people who believed that the role of schools was not to give students the best possible education, but was rather to make all people end up at the same acedemic place at the end of school, were responsible for changing the entire school system. These little monsters, with their puffed up chests and arrogant condensation, decided that first and foremost, non-whites and non-males must be allowed to posses degrees. These egalitarianists did not want anyone to be confused into thinking that they wanted these special cases to earn degrees, but only to posses degrees. In order for that to happen... Well just look at your school system and you will see what they did to make that happen!

People with the equivalent of a fourth grade education suddenly started showing up at colleges and universities by court order. To fail them was called racist. If Americans had stood up and objected at that point and had thrown these pointed headed anti-whites out right then and there, our school system would have been saved. Instead, they stood and watched while schools found a way to cope with an impossible situation. The new arrivals achieved failing scores, but the professors were still not allowed to fail them. Grades and tests were suddenly attacked as being racist. IQ tests were ridiculed as culturally unfair. What was left was a shell of the old school system. They now spoon- feed intellectual mush, where before a hearty intellectual meal was delivered. The great authors of western literature, are derogatorily referred to as, “Dead white men.” Their written works are studied now only to identify their failings when measured against the PC yardstick.

It is time to straighten out the mess. It is time to save our children’s future by reinstating a set of high standards for our school system. Contrary to what our president says, these standards do not need to be provided by our federal government. That government was what inflicted the lack of standards in the first place! The most important thing is to stop the egalitarian infested government from controlling our schools, and return control of the school system to the communities which actually care about the kids that are attending their schools. We are no longer impressed by the twisted, socialist egalitarian pipe dream that has already destroyed the best school system in the world!

rosco 357

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sometimes my hands accidentally hit a key that do all kinds of weird things,especially if i get lazy an let my hand rest on the key board by mistake, is there keys u may hit to make words italics, i just would like to know, if a key does the italics button, but i have never used italics , there are times i maybe should,take care

Yes there are keys that will do that and its possible that's what happened. For example, if while writing a post you hold down the Ctrl key and press "I" it will put italic coding in your post. Its possible that happened.

rosco 357

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ithink when things go screwy, i am letting my palms or side of my hand hit the control key or alt, key, and some page pops up, i just let my hands get to low, but it hardly ever happens,but my hands stay asleep alot, from work, they get ok when im off work a while, but its been that way since the early 90s,

rosco 357 wrote:ithink when things go screwy, i am letting my palms or side of my hand hit the control key or alt, key, and some page pops up, i just let my hands get to low, but it hardly ever happens,but my hands stay asleep alot, from work, they get ok when im off work a while, but its been that way since the early 90s,

rosco 357

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Registration date : 2008-04-18Number of posts : 6718Gender : Quote : Never Quote You May Have To Back It UpReputation : 1Points : 7397

i did some electrical work in the early 90s, like making up elecrical services for mobile homes for some relatives at the lake and wire their place in . the wires in the meter box were large and handling those larger wires in tight places, , my hands got real bad, but i was layed off when i did that to make money while i was off,